Soldier surprises daughter and Angus Grade 1 class

Soldier surprises daughter and Grade 1 class in Angus

Cpl. Casey Strain, an ammunition technician, has been at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan, since September 2013 and flew back to Canada yesterday (Jan. 23).
With no one knowing Strain’s exact return date, his wife Vanessa and Grade 1 teacher Samantha Parker arranged the surprise reunion.

It started with a Facetime call between Strain – who was full of nervous excitement and concealed in the vice-principal’s office – and the Grade 1 class. The students were told Strain was calling from Afghanistan to talk to his daughter and then heading home mid-February.

At the end of the call, as the class tried to calm down from the excitement of calling Afghanistan, Strain walked in.

It took a couple seconds for Teagan to catch on to what was going on. Confused, she didn’t know what to look at until a classmate reached over and pointed.

Wearing a blue dress her dad bought in Afghanistan, Teagan ran into her daddy’s arms and the two hugged for the first time in more than four months.

“She didn’t even know what to think, it was awesome,” her mom said.

Since the public school closed on Canadian Forces Base Borden, two full buses of children arrive at Angus Morrison every day. Vice-principal Kent Cheesman said there are about 200 students from military families at the school.

This is the first time a surprise reunion has been arranged for one of the students.

“What a better way to surprise a child … have a dad come back,” Cheesman said. “Any time you can bring a family back together, we’re all for it.”